Speaking to a Labor Day rally in Detroit, a city he said had been “to heck and back,” Mr. Obama challenged Congressional Republicans to put the country ahead of party.

In a preview of his speech Thursday to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Obama proposed boosting construction and infrastructure projects – and included some finger-wagging at critics. “We have more than one million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now,” he said. “Labor’s on board and businesses [are] on board. We just need Congress to get on board.”

No mention of the need to get Barack Obama himself on board. He speaks as though he had not just allowed those same Republicans to destroy any hopes of an economic recovery by insisting that closing — RIGHT NOW — a deficit that was created by his predecessor was more important than creating good jobs; than halting or at least putting a crimp in the continuing tidal wave of home foreclosures; than passing emergency relief measures to help the millions of Americans whose homes and communities have been destroyed by tornadoes, hurricanes, dust storms, floods, and drought. He speaks as though he hadn’t just collaborated with Republicans to pass an economically irresponsible deficit reduction package with only spending cuts — no tax increases, no new sources of revenue, no extension of unemployment benefits; as though he hadn’t made it abundantly clear that he hasn’t merely caved to Republicans on the deficit mantra, he has totally bought into the ideology itself.

In a nutshell, Pres. Obama has made it impossible for me to believe that he intends to stand by or fight for anything that comes out of his mouth.

2 responses to “More Empty Platitudes from Obama”

The “Audacity of Hope” has disintegrated into audacity of quite another kind! I don’t have any way of knowing what lies in his heart, but by his actions and occasionally his lack of action, I am forced to draw some conclusions that he is not benefiting from. If I didn’t know better…and I don’t…I would think he is a shill for the Republican party. It really sort of floors me that the rank and file of the Republican Party can still hold him in such contempt when he so clearly shares most of their beliefs and so effectively works to institute them into policy.
My great grandfather use to watch professional wrestling with the blood lust of a Roman at the Coliseum. My grandfather tried to tell him that it was all a show, and that after the “epic struggle”, they would all meet out for a beer and a laugh. These words angered my great grandfather who wondered how the evidence of the eye could be so easily dismissed. After all, they had drawn real red blood! What could be more real than blood!
I have no trouble imagining President Obama having drinks with Boehner and Cantor; none at all. This should be harder to imagine! All this civility where passion and grit should be! Where’s the blood?
It’s political theater we see now, and the new color of blood is green.